State-owned energy company Stanwell has confirmed the arrival of Tesla Megapack 2XL units at its 300MW/1,200MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) at Stanwell Power Station in Queensland, Australia.
Over the coming months, 324 Megapack units will be delivered to complete the 4-hour duration battery system being constructed adjacent to Stanwell’s coal-fired power station.
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The BESS is a cornerstone of the Queensland government’s strategy to transition the site, located about 22km from Rockhampton, to clean energy resources. Stanwell plans to transform the power station into the Stanwell Clean Energy Hub, with the Megapacks being installed by Yurika, another Queensland government-owned company.
Tesla’s Megapack is an integrated solution that includes lithium-ion batteries, a power conversion system (PCS), thermal management, and controls. With increased demand globally for the technology, Tesla’s Megapack factory in Lathrop, California, ramped up to 40GWh annual production capacity by the end of 2024, and the company’s equally sized Megapack ‘Megafactory’ in China has recently gone online.
The Megapack solution’s popularity in Australia led to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) being signed earlier this year between Tesla and the Western Australian government for a battery re-manufacturing facility in Collie.
The service facility is expected to become operational by 2026 and will initially service a range of battery products in Western Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific region.
Tesla reported earlier this month that it made 9.6GWh of global energy storage deployments across its utility-scale Megapack and residential Powerwall lines in the second quarter of this year, ahead of a full results release scheduled for 23 July.
Stanwell BESS: timeline and investment
Stanwell anticipates that all Tesla Megapack XL units will be in place and stored in a safe “shipping mode” by September. Commissioning is expected to follow in November 2025.
Bulk earthworks for the site began in August 2024, and the project is estimated to cost AU$747 million (US$482 million). The Stanwell BESS is scheduled to supply electricity to the grid and the National Electricity Market (NEM) by May 2027.
Angie Zahra, Stanwell Central Generation’s general manager, emphasised the importance of the BESS in the company’s diversification strategy.
“Capable of discharging 300MW of energy for up to four hours (1200MWh), our mega battery will be one of the largest in Queensland. It is just one part of the 800MW of battery energy storage capacity we have in our pipeline,” Zahra said.
In addition to the Stanwell BESS, the company is developing the 300MW/600MWh Tarong BESS in Queensland, which will be part of the Tarong Clean Energy Hub.
Construction of the standalone battery storage asset at the Tarong Power Station site began in August 2023, with plans to be fully operational by mid-2025.
Like the Stanwell BESS, the Tarong project will utilise Tesla Megapack 2XL battery units, with 164 units planned for installation.
Stanwell’s collaboration with Quinbrook for the Supernode BESS
Earlier this year, Stanwell secured an additional 250MW/1,010MWh of BESS capacity through an offtake agreement with global investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners for the Supernode BESS.
This agreement confirmed the third stage of the Supernode BESS, located at the “strategic” South Pine site. With this deal, the Supernode BESS expanded to 750MW/2,540MWh, making it one of the largest battery systems in the NEM.
The agreement with Stanwell is contingent on Quinbrook meeting specific conditions, including achieving financial close for the project by 30 September 2025.
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